The advantage of being a video games blogger (and a one who does his research) is that you’ll know what to answer when your other half points out to a Love and Berry arcade machine and asks what is it.

That was exactly what happened while I was holidaying at Genting last weekend. To the benefit of those not in the know, Love and Berry is a cross between a rhythm game and a card collecting game and generally appeals to girls. The cards that you collect (from playing the game) can be swiped at the card reader equipped arcade machines to allow you to play dress up with your characters.

This SEGA game spawned a DS spin-off titled Oshare Majo Love and Berry (DS Collection), and guess what, it arrived in my mailbox earlier today :). The Nintendo DS game comes with its very own Card Reader (which goes into the Slot-2) which reads cards obtained from the arcade version of the game!

One word of caution though, it appears that the game does not read cards from the English arcade version of the game, which is understandable since the DS release is Japanese only. I haven’t gone about playing the game (it has joined the long list that is “games bought but waiting to be played”) but here are some pictures for the curious:

Oshare Majo Love and Berry (DS Collection) is available at Play-Asia for just USD 19.90. Click here for further details.